Schools Cricket Preview
Wisden Schools Editor Rob Morris previews the forthcoming schools season.
With schools returning from their Easter break from the middle of April onwards, the new school season is keenly awaited after what has seemed a long and depressing winter. This year sees the introduction of the Knight-Stokes Cup, a new competition for state schools’ Under 15 teams only, run by the MCC Foundation and conceived by Michael Vaughan and Mark Nicholas.
The new tournament has around 750 schools taking part, with 700 boys teams and 384 girls teams, and the finals day taking place on Thursday, 10th September at Lord’s. Many first-class grounds are being used for county and regional finals, while numerous independent schools have offered their facilities to their local state schools to play their home matches. The tournament gets underway in late April.
Rugby School are looking to retain its two national Under 18 titles, won at Lord’s on a momentous day last July, when their boys and girls 1st XIs defeated Clifton College and Barton Peveril College, respectively, to both become national champions for the first time. With many of both sides still available, they look once again to provide a stiff challenge to other schools and colleges looking to wrestle away their crowns.
The Boys Under 18 T20 has, since the Covid years, become a more open competition with four first-time winners becoming champions since 2022. From the years when the likes of Millfield, Malvern and Shrewsbury dominated the competition, the competition has thrown up surprises every year, with state schools beating independent-sector schools and smaller, less-known schools progressing in the competition. Matches get underway in the middle of April, as a record number of 224 schools have entered, and this can be followed on Play Cricket.
The Cricket Paper Girls Under 18 100-ball has attracted 72 schools, with last year’s beaten finalists Barton Peveril College, who became the first state sector girls’ side to play at Lord’s, looking to go one better. Yorkshire Cricket College also reached last year’s semi-final and are keen to progress further this year. Standing in their way are many highly fancied independent schools such as Berkhamsted, Bradfield, Ipswich, King’s Worcester, Shrewsbury and Sedbergh, as well as Rugby.
Due to the sheer amount of international cricket scheduled at Lord’s this year, the MCC have moved the National Schools Finals Day away from Lord’s, and will be taking place at the sumptuous surroundings of the Wormsley ground on Friday 3rd July.
The Boys Under 17 competition has once again attracted over 100 schools from both state and independent sectors, as first-time winners Hampton hope to repeat their narrow victory over a very good Rugby side, played at the Edgbaston Foundation Ground last September. This competition serves as a bridge between the frenetic T20 format, and the more traditional 50-over format, played by Tier one cricketing schools. The tournament is popular amongst many of the top cricketing schools, catering for an age group that has no public exams.
The recent National Schools Heads of Cricket Conference held at Lord’s in March revealed a disconnect between the game’s governing body, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and school cricket, especially at secondary school level. While the keynote speaker, ECB CEO Richard Gould, praised the contribution of the independent sector, in particular, for supplying many of the England squad for the recent Under-19 World Cup campaign (along with several of the Scottish and Irish squads), he wasn’t able to give assurances about the future of the game in secondary schools.
At a time when the MCC are putting considerable amounts of time and effort, not to mention money from sponsors, into state school cricket through the Knight-Stokes Cup, it is inconceivable that the only type of cricket which the ECB are looking to develop in secondary schools is softball cricket, according to their latest strategy document.
With this in mind, the England Schools Cricket Association and the Schools Cricket Committee, who administer schools cricket at sixth-form level, and in independent schools, are combining their efforts to lobby the ECB to take a greater interest in schools cricket, especially hardball cricket, through institutional support in particular. Both organisations feel the financial windfall raised from the partial sale of the Hundred franchises is a good opportunity for the ECB to invest in grassroots cricket, especially schools. Incentivising cash-strapped clubs to set up partnership arrangements with local schools to use club facilities for matches and practice, while sending club coaches into schools to grow the game, is just one way the ECB could be involved.
Schools’ cricket continues to be under immense pressure in an ever-changing world. While exam pressure has been a constant for many years, schools report that financial pressures make the game difficult to justify going forward, with many schools cutting the number of teams they field, restricting the distance travelled for fixtures and cutting back on cricket teas! Despite this, thousands of children will soon be donning their kit – not always white these days- eagerly anticipating the smell of newly mown grass and the sound of leather on willow.